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Theatre Review: Calamity Jane - King's Theatre, Glasgow ✭✭✭✭

Review by Anna Ireland

It’s not every day that you get the opportunity
to be thrown headlong into the Old West, surrounded by dust, booze and
petticoats but with Calamity Jane, you
can do just that.

Based on the 1953 film of the same name, the
stage production sees Doris Day’s character, the aptly named ‘Calamity’ Jane, causing
a ruckus wherever she goes with her un-ladylike ways in 1880’s America’s Wild
West. In a time when women are expected to fulfill a particular role (of
homemaker and attractive ornament), Calamity breaks all the rules that men
create for her.

The musical extravaganza with an Oscar-nominated
stars Jodie Prenger as Calamity and
follows her journey to Chicago to return the revered actress Adelaid Adams to
Deadwood, Dakota, to delight the men of the town. Instead, she returns unknowingly
with the actresses maid, Katie Brown (Sophia
Ragavelas), who deceives Calamity in a desperate attempt for her own slice
of fame.

The centre of the action is the saloon and its
performance area, allowing the music to take centre-stage. Every piece of music
is played by the actors as an apparent bystander becomes a musician, interchanging
between piano and fiddle with ease. The action and music flow seamlessly, and the
cast inhabits this with an energy that is infectious. There are mass sing-a-longs
to ‘Just Got in from the Windy City’ and ‘the Black Hills of Dakota,’ taking you
from one toe-tapping dance routine to the next. The cast are hugely talented, with
outstanding vocals from Prenger and Ragavelas.

Essentially a love story in an era where relationships
cause smashed glasses and shootouts as Katie’s relationship with Lieutenant Danny
(Alex Hammond) provokes a jealous
fury in Calamity. However, Calamity eventually finds unlikely solace in ‘Wild’
Bill Hickok (Tom Lister), who
finally overcomes his constant chastising of Calamity’s fearsome ways as she
softens her hard exterior. As an audience, you are thrown full pelt into these fast-paced
Western brawls and sing-a-longs in the midst of romantic chaos. Prenger as Calamity is as hilarious and
exaggerated as you’d like her to be, whilst tearing up the rulebook as a
character not wishing to adhere to anyone’s expectations.

Although the story differs very little from the
film in terms of its content and songs, the show is funny and very much alive.
Receiving an almost full standing ovation, the audience was fully invested. It
has romance, it has laughter, and it has music to match. As the saying goes, if
its not broken, don’t fix it, and there is not much to fix about Calamity Jane.